Questions have been voiced during this past fall and into winter about whether there is any comparison between the big drought of 2012 and the Dust Bowl drought years of the 1930s. Were any environmental factors in play that offer any sort of comparison?

I posed that question in a Twitter note to the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (known as IRI). I got a reply from IRI communications officer Francesco Fiondella, and here is the transcription of his message:

"I spoke very briefly to one of our scientists here about any connection between the 1930s drought and ...